At $6 per drink, fancy coffees can cost you around $2400/yr (after taxes). I’m going to show you exactly how to shave $2200 off your coffee budget with 2 coffee making methods and still be able to enjoy fresh, awesome coffee.

Instead of $6 per drink, the 2 methods below will cost you 20 cents to 80 cents per serving of coffee. On average, that’s 50 cents of coffee, and so at 400 drinks a year ($200), you’d save an average of $2200/yr just on coffee alone!

Methods To Make Cheap (Yet Good) Coffee At Home

I personally like drinking black coffee and tasting the nuances of the beans that I purchase. But if you insist on being unhealthy and adding a bunch of cream and sugar to your coffee, at least do it without paying $6 per serving.

1. The Cheapest Of All Coffee Making Methods: The “20 Cent Iced Coffee”

YouTube finance guru Stephan Graham makes 20-cent iced coffees in a few easy steps:

1. Buy some pre-ground coffee beans (or you can buy coffee beans you grind yourself)
   1. If you do buy coffee beans you grind yourself, you can get any food processor / electric coffee grinder and it’ll grind it for you.
2. Put a coffee filter on a 12-cup coffee maker, like this one here: https://amzn.to/3y5BaDS
3. Fill up the ground beans until it reaches around 3/4 of the filter.
4. Fill up the coffee maker’s jar until it hits roughly 12 cups.
5. Pour the 12 cups of water into the coffee maker.
6. Make the coffee.
7. Put ice on the coffee and enjoy. Stephan Graham recommends you put creamer on, but I prefer no sugar in my coffee.
8. Refrigerate the finished coffee and enjoy that batch for the rest of the week.

This is the one of the cheapest coffee making methods out there, but the taste isn’t as fresh as the 2nd method I’m about to show you. Also, when you add creamer to your coffee, you increase costs and detract from the bean taste of your coffee.

2. Buy Coffee Beans And Grind It Yourself (80 cents per coffee)

I personally like grinding my coffee beans manually nowadays since it’s more fresh and it’s a fun morning ritual for me. Here’s what I do:

1. I buy beans online or in bulk at Whole Foods, where I aim to pay less than $1 per ounce of coffee.
2. I pour enough beans to fill up 3/4ths of this manual grinder here: https://amzn.to/3zCtJV4
3. In the meantime, I use the electric kettle included in this bundle (includes a pour-over kit and an electric kettle).
4. While the water is boiling, I use the manual grinder and manually grind the coffee (takes about 3-4 mins).
5. The bundle I linked to in step #3 also comes with a metal coffee filter and a jar to collect the coffee. This means there’s absolutely NO need for you to buy paper filters. This is an enormous convenience and saves space in the kitchen. Anyway, I pour the ground coffee beans from the manual grinder to the metal filter.
6. I let the boiling water cool for about 2-4 minutes so the flavor as less harsh (though you don’t have to wait if you don’t want)
7. I pour the hot water over the ground beans, into the jar.
8. I’m done, and pour the coffee into a cup to enjoy while I do my morning reads.

Note that this is a slightly more expensive (about $0.80 per serving of coffee) than the $0.20 coffee technique. However, I like this method because 1) the coffee tastes more fresh, 2) I enjoy the process of making the coffee manually, and 3) it takes up a lot less space in the kitchen and in the fridge than using a 12-cup coffee maker.

This is one of the best overall coffee making methods in my opinion because it balances taste and costs. You get the benefits of having freshly ground coffee without needing to pay someone $6 + tax + tips to do it.

Feel free to use the first method if you want just the cheapest coffee possible. And use the 2nd if you don’t mind paying slightly more for your coffee while enjoying the best possible taste.

Coffee Doesn’t Have To Be Expensive

If you’re mentally lethargic like me, you’ll need coffee to wake up you in the mornings and to keep you functional throughout the day. Coffee is one of the most underrated investment and productivity tools that nobody ever talks about. It gives you the energy to perform and do things to earn a higher income than you would otherwise if you were caffeine-free and slumped over the couch.

But coffee can get expensive, especially if you buy it at Starbucks. It doesn’t have to be expensive though and you can easily and convenient make great coffee at home without burning a hole in your bank account.

There’s a couple methods for you to effortlessly make cheap, yet good coffee at home:

1. Brew it in bulk with a 12-cup coffee maker. Throw some ice and optionally some delicious yet unhealthy creamer on it. This should be enough to last you 5 to 7 days, allowing for max time saved and convenience.
   1. Hand-grind fresh coffee from coffee beans each day. This takes more time and is 60 cents more expensive than the first method, but can be a great space saver if you live in a small apartment and if you’re a coffee connoisseur, fresh coffee will taste better.

So there you have it: coffee can get expensive if you let it, but it doesn’t have to be. You’ll save thousands per year eliminating a Starbucks coffee habit, and in conjunction with other cost-saving techniques + income earning techniques, it all adds up extremely significantly.

(post contains affiliate links, where if you buy stuff I get paid to keep running this site)

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